Huanglongbing (HLB; syn Citrus Greening or yellow dragon) disease is one of the biggest threats to the $9.3B Florida citrus industry. Currently, the disease is widespread throughout all of the citrus growing regions in Florida, and was recently discovered in both California and Texas. This disease is caused by bacteria and is spread by Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP) insect. As diurnal insects, D. citri are strongly responsive to visual host plant cues (Unruh et al. Journal Of Economic Entomology 2000, 93(3), 737-43, Showier et al. Journal Of Economic Entomology 2000, 95(4), 754-62). Recent laboratory studies report enhancement of attraction to host plant odors in the presence of visual cues, (Cottrell et al. Journal of Economic Entomology 2002, 95(4) 782-8. Hall et al. Journal of Economic Entomology 2007, 100(3), 847-54) indicating the critical role of vision in host plant location. While adult D. citri feed on Rutanceous host plant leaves of any age, only flush tissues support reproductive development, oviposition and nymphal growth (Liang et al. Journal of Economic Entomology 2002, 95(2), 317-245). Based on sticky trap collections, D. citri are strongly attracted to reflected yellow and green light (thought to represent leaf color) but not attracted to blue wavelengths (Hall et al., Erler et al. Phytoparasitica 2007, 35(5), 466-73). Similar to aphids and whiteflies, ultraviolet-reflecting materials also appear to repel psyllids (Saour et al. Crop Protection 2005, 24(8), 711-7, Daniel et al. Journal of Applied Entomology 2005, 129(7), 363-77).
Particle film technology has been reported to be an environment friendly, sustainable, and viable alternative to chemical insecticide for managing pests and diseases in agricultural crops. Hence the development of spectral reflector for spreading on the plants to modify or alter the optical cues that ACP use to identify citrus as a food source is of value. The spectral reflector must be easily spread on the plant and retained on the plant for effective repelling of the ACP.